Explosion damages parish office, school and hospital in O'Neill

Residents of O'Neill got an early wakeup call Monday when an explosion occurred at St. Patrick's Parish Center around 5:55 a.m.

No injuries were reported, but the parish center was destroyed and a nearby school and hospital sustained damage.

Windows were also blown out from several homes across the street from St. Patrick's, littering front yards with broken glass.

Reports said the blast, the cause of which remains under investigation, could be heard as far away as Atkinson, a town 18 miles to the west.

By Monday afternoon, police and volunteer firefighters from across Holt County joined neighbors and community members in cleaning up debris littering the roads and yards surrounding the St. Patrick’s Parish Center.

The smell of smoke from the building’s smoldering remains still lingered in the air.

Terry Miles, a volunteer firefighter in O’Neill, said he thought he heard a loud boom of thunder Monday morning, but his pager alerted him otherwise.

“When I arrived on scene, the St Patrick's Parish center was totally inflamed and there was debris throughout the area," he said. "It was pretty evident that an explosion had occurred at this facility.”

School was canceled at Saint Mary’s Catholic School in O’Neill Monday, and potential structural damage to the grade school could result in a much longer closure.

At Avera Saint Anthony's Hospital, one block away from the explosion, the doors were blown out and patients were transferred to West Holt Memorial Hospital in Atkinson.

A Nebraska State Patrol and Nebraska State Fire Marshal investigation into the cause of the explosion is ongoing.